World Footy News

The DAFL community is in mourning following the death of one of the pioneers of Australian football in Denmark, Mark Zaga, who passed away aged 51 on the weekend after a brief illness.

Mark, whose full surname was Zagodinos but was generally shortened to Zaga, was a key personality in the DAFL's beginnings in the early 90s, when the league was just coming together and games were played at the public park at Fælledparken.

He coached the Amager Tigers to premierships in 1992, 1993 and 1995 and among the players of that club at the time his popularity was legendary, a fact confirmed by the messages of respect on the DAFL and Amager facebook pages. He won the hearts of a lot of young Danish players and convinced them that footy really was the greatest game on the planet.

Mark went on to be the president of the DAFL in 1996 and 1997 at a time when almost no-one took on the thankless task for more than one year. He was also the coach of the first DAFL representative team to play outside Denmark - against Great Britain in London in 1994.

After his involvement in DAFL, Mark was very successful in the hair care industry in Denmark.

The writing staff at worldfootynews.com join members of the DAFL in extending our sympathies to Mark's family at this very sad time.